The marathon is a long-distance running exercise that tests endurance. The name of the sport comes from the Battle of Marathon in the ancient Greek era. The battle between Athens and Persia took place in 490 BC. In this battle, there was an Athens soldier, Fittipides. According to legend, he died after a long run to convey the message. In the first Olympic Games in 1896, this sport was listed as one of the official competitions, but it was not until 1921 that the length of Masurra was stipulated. The path of the Athens Marathon was the path that Athens Soldier Fittipides took to Athens from the Greek Marathon battlefield.
The prescribed length is now 42 kilometers 195 meters or 26 miles 385 yards. There are more than 800 marathons held each year in the world. There are usually tens of thousands of participants in large-scale events, most of them aiming at fitness and leisure. What is certain is that for such a long time to maintain such a high level of competition, the power of the mind is very important for such games.
The legend of the marathon was first recorded in Plutarch's essay On the Glory of Athens in the 1st century. He quoted the lost works of Heraclitus (Greek: Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ποντικός) and gave it to the soldier who wrote the letter. Named Thersipus of Erchius or Eucles.
The idea of setting up a marathon in the first modern Olympic Games came from the French historian Michel Blair (French: Michel Bréal). This idea was strongly supported by Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics. The Greek Spiridon Louis (Σπυρίδων "Σπύρος" Λούης) won the first Olympic marathon in 2 hours, 58 minutes and 50 seconds.
The women's marathon was included in the official competition program at Los Angeles' 1984 Summer Olympics. Joan Benoit of the United States won the competition and became the first female marathon champion in the modern Olympic Games. Her time is 2 hours 24 minutes 52 seconds.
From the beginning of the first modern Olympic Games, it has become a tradition to put the men's marathon on the final stage, and the finish is set in the main stadium.
The marathon of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games re-instated the route of the first Olympic Games, from the town of Marathon to Athens, to the end of the Panathinaic Stadium (并αναθηναϊκό στάδιο), and arranged the award ceremony at the closing ceremony.
The men's marathon record is 2 hours 02 minutes and 57 seconds. Created by Kenyan player Dennis Kipruto Kimetto on the 2014 Berlin Marathon.
In the first four Olympic marathons, the distance was determined by the organizers. In the 1896 Athens Olympics, the marathon distance was less than 40 kilometers; in the 1900 Paris Olympics, the distance was about 40 kilometers; in 1904, the Saint Louis Olympics was about 41 kilometers away. Until the London Olympics in 1908, the starting point for this marathon was at Windsor Castle and the end was at the White City Stadium. The total length of the track is 42.195 kilometers. The length of the Olympic Marathon after this time is the standard.
The standard length of the marathon was formally established by the IAAF in 1921 and was 42 kilometers 195 meters or 26 miles 385 yards.
After the 1980s, half-marathons (about 21 kilometers) rose in the private sector.
Due to the fact that the marathon was carried out on a highway and the track conditions were different, there was no "World Record" for a long period of time, and only "World's Best" (or "Best Time") was used as a runner's record. Until 2004, the IAAF officially adopted the marathon world record and bid farewell to the era of the best in the world.
British player Paula Radcliffe was officially recognized as the world record holder of the women's marathon, with a score of 2:15:25.